Southern Comfort

Sorry for the wait -- all the snow here has separated me from computer (just kidding). With a good 10 inches (for you so metrically inclined that 25.4 cms) with more coming a little later today I was enjoying The Snowy Day (shout out Ezra Jack Keats).

But all this snow bring the call for a little Southern Exposure.

It looks like Austin is getting his Southern Gothic on and getting into the vibe of Southern Gothic Productions. How, by lifting literature, or at least that is what Hillarie is claiming from this transcript of a chat she and Nick had with everyone.

HB: Um… oh, god… who do I just, love? I mean, I was gonna say, [holds up another book] Truman Capote’s stuff really, really hits me. My favorite book of his was The Grass Harp and I had a copy of it but I’m pretty sure Mr. Austin Nichols has it right now.
NG: What a surprise…
HB: What a surprise! Theivin’ Nichols.

What else would a lit major steal but books.

Now Mr. Nichols, you admit to lying, drinking, mooning, flirting, howling and now there's talk of stealing. No doubt you're a gambling and doing other things that would make southern ladies roll in their graves or would they, you just might not seem them grin more than wag their finger. Cause your grin could charm the panties off a granny.

Southern Gothic builds on the traditions of the larger Gothic genre, typically including supernatural elements, mental disease, and the grotesque. Much Southern Gothic literature, however, eschews the supernatural and deals instead with disturbed personalities. It's is known for its flawed, damaged and delusional characters, such as the heroines of Tennessee Williams' plays. Instead of perpetuating romanticized stereotypes of the Antebellum South, it brings the stock characters of melodrama and Gothic novels to a Southern context in order to make a point about Southern mores.

Southern Gothic literature often deals with the plight of those who are ostracized or oppressed by traditional Southern culture - blacks, women, and gays, for example. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird deals with a clearly innocent black man who is convicted of rape and murdered simply because of his race. Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire reinvents the Southern belle as a pretentious, mentally unstable woman, and his Cat on a Hot Tin Roof portrays the favorite son of a Southern dynasty as a repressed homosexual whose alcoholism threatens his marriage. William Faulkner's frequently anthologized "A Rose for Emily" brings the recurrent Gothic theme of unrequited love leading to madness to a Southern town in which the disapproving residents narrate in a single voice. Other notable writers in the Southern Gothic tradition include Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, and of course Truman Capote.

A modern example of Southern Gothic is Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It has all the elements of a true Southern Gothic novel in a true life story that took place in what people see as in the genteel southern city of Savannah. The story of outsider who's made it into Savannah society accused of murdering his younger, and to many an opportunist, lover. And it brings out all kinds of characters that weave there way like Spanish Moss hanging from the tree in Savannah. But what it appears and what really it is true of Savannah. And that's Southern Gothic. The hanging Spanish moss everywhere and get to know you conversation starting with "whatdaya drink?" instead of "what do you do?" helps add to it.

I can see what the draw is to Austin and other actors, because the life of an actor is about appearing not as their reality, celebrating the eccentricities, and what actor doesn't want to play a part of a flaw character.


Talking about appearances ---Austin is making a few in some great pictures over at Spooky's. Check out the newest picture of him on the set of OTH. And check out her beautiful artistic interpretation.